7 Fall Fiction Reads With Strong Female Leads

These seven novels embrace the strength of leading female characters with stories of mystery, love, and growth.

1. The Barter by Siobhan Adcock

Bridget is sacrificing her successful career as an attorney to take care of her newborn daughter. When a ghost enters their home Bridget begins to worry, despite how calm her daughter is. Travel back one hundred years where Rebecca leaves her city life to live with her farmer husband. Together they had a baby boy and suddenly all her attention was only focused on him, no more time for her husband. Somehow, Bridget and Rebecca are going to be linked, but how?

2. The Same Sky by Amanda Eyre Ward

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Alice is unsatisfied with her aspirations of being a successful restaurant owner. She is aware of what is going on at the border of her home state and Mexico. In Mexico, Carla has taken over the role of mother to her younger brother Junior. Carla decides she needs to make a change for her and her brother and head to America carrying high hopes and struggles. Alice and Carla’s lives intertwine, leading them to find courage between each other.

3. The Black Velvet Coat by Jill G. Hall

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Fifty years ago, Sylvia Van Dam is a young heiress entering a tragic marriage. She escapes her disheartening future by running away to Northern Arizona to embrace the beauty of the land and find her self worth. Today, Anne McFarland is a twenty-eight-year-old aspiring artist who lacks self-confidence. She decides to buy a coat from a thrift shop and finds a magical key hidden within the pockets. Bizarre occurrences begin as Sylvia and Anne’s life intertwine through the use of this magical key.

4. The Art of Crash Landing by Melissa DeCarlo

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Mattie is a pregnant alcoholic with no money, few belongings, and no place to live. Her world has crumbled. After reaching the end of the rope, she drives to Oklahoma after hearing her grandmother may have left an inheritance for her. Upon arrival, she is immediately immersed in the town’s mystery of her missing mother. Mattie is now full of questions to what happened to her mom. Will Mattie be able to save her own life or will she follow in her mother’s footsteps?

5. Reading the Sweet Oak by Jan Stites

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Tulsa is a busy, independent woman running a business and is not concerned about her love life. Ruby, her grandmother, is worried about Tulsa and her future feeling unfulfilled. Full of lessons, Ruby wants to teach Tulsa that sometimes things are worth the risk. Tulsa is pulled in by her grandmother to start a book club where the five members explore the ideas of love, romance, and friendship that guides Tulsa towards a different future.

6. Her by Harriet Lane

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Emma and Nina have nothing in common. Emma is a young mom who can’t find her inner sparkle and is too exhausted to try. Nina is a confident artist who has her life planned out. Upon meeting, the pair cannot ignore their attraction to each other. The friendship between the two women is developing and there is something discomforting taking place. What draws two girl’s so different to want to be together?

7. The Brontë Plot by Katherine Reay

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To make a living, Lucy has an unconventional, but effective approach to selling rare books, but when her boss and boyfriend realize the truth, she looses them both. In a twisted unimaginable tale, her ex-boyfriend’s grandma, Helen, and Lucy bond over hidden secrets after Helen hires her as a consultant. Together they are traveling across England to track down literature and antiques ending their journey with the Brontë sisters. Their friendship helps each other confront their past and learn to move on.